The situation in the gaming industry is still not very stable, if we look at the two news that have come out in one day…
In a statement, Tequila Works (The Sexy Brutale, Rime, Gylt…), founded in 2009 and which received an investment in 2022 from one of the Chinese tech giants, Tencent, has announced that it was not enough that the layoffs were made in October. The new director, Térence Mosca, said that he was proud of what he had achieved with the Madrid-based studio, but that there was no other option than insolvency, ie bankruptcy.The founders have resigned.”Since its inception in 2009, Tequila Works’ game development philosophy has always focused on ‘making things with gusto’. We are doing everything we can to support and guide our teams through this difficult time,” the statement read.
The other studio forced to make cuts (again!) is Payload Studios, which created TerraTech and was founded in London in 2013. Three months ago, 25% of the studio’s staff was made redundant, citing industry difficulties. Those affected were given a month’s notice, but no severance pay. Russell Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Payload, confirmed the layoffs to Gamesindustry.
“It is true that last week we announced another round of layoffs. This came out of the blue after a project we were counting on failed to materialize and put us in a very difficult position. The details, including the handling of notice periods and severance payments, as well as the number of people who will ultimately lose their jobs, are still to be determined – but we needed to notify staff last week to give as much warning as possible to those who may be affected.
The situation is very fluid, so we are not in a position to confirm any specifics – but we aim to provide answers to our staff this week, as soon as we have them.We are a small studio struggling to survive in very difficult times, but as always, our employees are our top priority.I’m afraid one of the co-founders has been affected. We are still working out the details, but the team moving forward will have to be very lean,” said Clarke.
It’s a pretty sad situation.
Source: Gamesindustry,
